Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy: Digital Painting
Bert Monroy
Peachpit Press
http://www.peachpit.com
289 pages
ISBN 978-0-321-51587-2
US $49.99
CA $54.99
When TechTV and the Screen Savers were around I always looked forward to the segments with Bert Monroy doing a Photoshop tutorial. So, when I had the opportunity to review his new book, Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy: Digital Painting, I jumped at it.
The book may not be what you’d expect. It was not what I expected. It is not a book of traditional how-to lessons, although you will learn how to improve your Photoshop skills. Instead, it is a book by an artist describing the process he goes through in creating his digital paintings. This process not only includes how he made a table cloth with a particular pattern on it, but also going out and taking the right photographs for reference.
In his Introduction Monroy explains how the book started as the traditional how-to book, but he was encouraged by several people to make it about how he paints and works. This decision was made after he started writing the book. As a result, the how-to chapters are available online as a downloadable bonus. Directions for accessing these chapters are in the book.
The beginning of the book describes Bert’s process for starting a painting, finding reference materials, and how he determines lighting in a painting.
The book then moves on to its heart, the paintings. There are seven chapters describing the process of creating seven different paintings. Each chapter contains descriptions of how to achieve the same effects in your paintings.
The end of the book contains a chapter full of tutorials. These tutorials might be considered your traditional how-to section of the book.
Overall, this is a fantastic book that presents digital painting in Photoshop in a very creative way. As an artist and an art teacher, I really enjoyed reading the process and thinking that went into these paintings and other painting Monroy works on.
The book is not for the Photoshop beginner. It will not teach you how to use Photoshop. In fact, it assumes that the reader is familiar with Photoshop and many of the tools.
At a price of $49.99 (U.S.) it does seem a bit pricey. I would be more inclined to purchase a book like this at the $30.00 range. However, if you are a digital artist and a Bert Monroy fan, and you want to drop $49.99 down on a book; you won’t be disappointed.
MyMac.com rating: 4.5 out of 5
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